Opinion: Kalki! A Power Play Act Of Desi Avengers Will Keep You Glued, What's Good And What's Great?

The much awaited movie of the year is here and multiplexes are jam packed with all age groups to watch the multi starer. While Prabhas and Deepika bring in the glam part, Amitabh Bachchan as Ashwatthama -son of Dronacharya, steals the show with brilliant dialogue delivery and action sequences.

We, the millennials, grew up listening to mythological stories of Ramayana and Mahabharata from our grand parents but things slowly faded as we grew up and Gen Z and Gen Alpha, glued to their ipads, more or less donot get that kind of exposure probably due to their lack of imagination and inquisition.

The film beautifully projects four Hindu yugas, the Satya (or Krita) yuga, the Treta yuga, the Dwapara yuga, and the Kali yuga and a lot of narration in the first half goes to connect the dots.

Who is Kalki?

According to the hindu mythology, Kalki is the prophesied tenth and final incarnation of the god Vishnu who will save the world from, well, the evil.

Kamal Haasan, as pure evil - the Supreme is marvellous and ruthless. So is his right hand, Saswata Chatterjee who doesnt spare even pregnant women in the film with his pitiless actions. The dark world where there is water scarcity and the traded currency is "units" is controlled by the "Complex" run by the Supreme and the division between the well-off and poor is prominently shown in the movie.

Prabhas plays a bounty hunter and shows some amazing action moves but Bujji - the transformer type vehicle, like Mr. Bachchan, steals the show with her sense of humour and literally becomes 'Optimus Prime' when evil tries to hurt her master. Additionally, superb VFX and animation shows Indian cinema has come a long way. This avenger style desi movie also freatures a few scenes probably inspired by Harry Potter and I was almost waiting for a "Expecto Patronum" moment which did happen eventually when Marium - a loving motherly type character gave a major competition to the bad boy - commander Manas, played by Saswata.

The Plot And The Twist

Now, Deepika Padukone who has played strong women character like Padmavati, Mastani or Leela is pregnant throughout the movie carrying the almighty in her womb. She portrays a character of a quiet Indian girl who is a victim to the Complex's atrocities. But once Ashwatthama enters her life, things change. Deepika is the utmost important character so far in the movie but I was personally hoping her to be a strong individual.

The second half of the film shows the city of Shambhala which is a mythical city in the Himalayas also known as Shangrila or abode of gods in Chinese and Hindu mythology. The whole story, like metaverse, is filmed in Kalki verse one could say.

One thing that I thought could have been better were songs. While the background score is brilliant, direct translation of Telegu dialogues in hindi songs may not go well with the hindi audience. But background slokas were impactful and delivered in a way common man would understand.

Just like there are franchises in Hollywood like avengers, X-men and cop universe films back home like Singham n Simba, War and Pathaan or the horror comedy universe of Stree, Bhediya or Munjiya, it can be expected that there will be future movies in the Kalki universe.

All in all, the movie is entertaining and keeps audience anxious about what will happen next. There is a slight twist in the plot in the end which I loved. Can't wait to watch the next part.